Again Gov Ortom rejects FG's decision to create Grazing Colonies

Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue state has again rejected the suggestion that the state create Cattle Colony or Grazing Routes for herdsmen.

He said the suggestions were not acceptable to the Benue people.

Ortom stated this on Thursday in Makurdi in a service to mark the mass burial of the victims of the herdsmen invasion. He had stated this position on Wednesday at a stakeholders’ meeting attended by the Inspector General of Police. Idris Ibrahim.

On Thursday, he said since the state does not even have adequate land for farmers, it does not have the space to give herdsmen for grazing.

He insisted on ranching, saying “it is the best way to go and it is in conformity with global best practices”.

Ortom said if the recent killings by herdsmen were meant to intimidate the state government to repeal the law, the herdsmen had failed woefully.

He also blamed the killings of Benue indigenes on the silence of the Federal Government and others responsible for the security of lives and property, an accusation he also made on Wednesday.

Ortom lamented that if the Federal Government had acted on the reports he gave it concerning the threats of attacks by the leader of Miyetti Allah, Kautal Hore, the killings would have been averted.

He urged the Federal Government to arrest the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, because they had severally made incisive statements against the state.

He, therefore, stated that the recent killings were a pointer to the fact that they had threatened and executed their devilish threats.

He condoled with the families of the slain victims and those that were injured as well as those that lost their property.